


Kids these days

by electricbird



Category: Emmerdale
Genre: F/F, Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-18
Updated: 2018-03-18
Packaged: 2019-03-31 17:45:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,118
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13980223
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/electricbird/pseuds/electricbird
Summary: Charity spends the day with Moses and Johnny.





	Kids these days

**Author's Note:**

> Just a short family fic, set a few months in the future.

“Is there a reason why there’s about 20 empty crisp packets in the bin that weren’t there this morning?” Vanessa asked, leaning back against the kitchen counter. “And by ‘reason’, I mean a sensible one that isn’t going to make me want to tear my hair out?” She put her hands on her hips and glared over to where her girlfriend and their two small children were sitting on the sofa, a picture of innocence. Once Charity and Moses had started to spend an increased amount of time at Tug Ghyll Vanessa had quickly realised that she would need to be the strict one in this set-up. From Moses and Johnny trying to have water fights in the bathroom whenever they managed to escape upstairs on their own, to Charity letting them stay up way past their bedtime more frequently than was necessary, Vanessa had no choice but to take on the ‘bad cop’ roll.

“Well, I’m waiting,” she dropped her head to one side and raised an eyebrow questioningly, “what’s the great excuse this time?”

Moses looked up at Charity before quickly swinging his entire body round to face Vanessa. “Mummy said we could play in the kitchen when she was on the phone to Debs,” the three-year-old offered, bouncing excitedly up and down in his seat. 

“Oi!” Charity said in a hushed tone whilst playfully tapping her son on the arm. “What did I say about not telling her that?” 

“You said we could have ice cream for afters,” Johnny piped up helpfully from where he was sitting on Charity’s left-hand side.

She looked incredulously down at the small boy before slowly looking back over to Vanessa. “Look, that’s obviously not what happened.” Charity dropped her arm from where it had been resting around Johnny’s shoulders and pushed herself up from the sofa. “You two are useless secret keepers,” she said as she looked down between Johnny and Moses. “I want to know what I’ve missed once I’ve managed to get us out of this, yeah?” she whispered conspiratorially to the two boys as she nodded towards the TV where Toy Story was playing. They both giggled mischievously before quickly returning their interest to the film. 

“Yeah, yeah. It’s okay for you two, I’m the one who'll get it in the neck,” she muttered to herself, rolling her eyes as she started to walk over to Vanessa who had somehow managed to keep looking angry, despite the smirk threatening to take over her face. 

“Babe, honestly, it’s not as bad as it sounds,” Charity said once she found herself standing in front of her girlfriend, “I didn’t just chuck them in the kitchen and leave them to it. I’m not that stupid, despite what everyone might think of my parenting skills.” She folded her arms and looked anywhere other than directly at Vanessa. “I was on the phone to Debs and they kept pulling on my arm and interrupting… which completely isn’t the point, I know, but they said they wanted to make something for ya. I don’t know, dinner or something. And I thought that was dead nice, so I just opened the cupboard -” 

“-and left them to it?” Vanessa finished, slowly nodding her head and pressing her lips together.

“Yeah, I thought what better way to entertain two kids than to just leave them unattended in the most dangerous room in the house,” Charity replied sarcastically. “Obviously not. I turned my back for two minutes and the next thing I knew the kitchen floor was covered in crisps. Literally covered. I don’t know how they managed it.”

She shuffled closer to Vanessa and let her hand brush gently against her arm. "You’re not actually mad, are you?" she asks quietly, “because it’s not like that time I left them with the bottle of ketchup and it ended up all over your bag. I learnt my lesson then. Honest.” She lets out an unsure laugh and nudges her hip against Vanessa’s. “They genuinely were just trying to do something nice, if you can believe that.”

The smaller woman let her features soften and looked up at her girlfriend. “Of course I’m not mad. Slightly disappointed, yes, but one of us has to at least pretend to be angry or they’ll think it’s fine to cause havoc in the house every time that they’re together.”

“I know, and you’re better at that stuff, aren’t you?” Charity asked, avoiding the other woman’s gaze again. 

“You need to stop thinking that I’m the good parent here. You’ve been nothing short of excellent with Johnny since you’ve been in his life,” she smiled and bit down on her bottom lip before continuing, “apart from a few mishaps that we needn’t mention again, but that’s the same in every family.” 

Charity laughed and forced her eyes to meet Vanessa’s. “You’re too good for me.”

Vanessa reached her hand out and linked it with Charity’s. “I’m not. We’ve had this conversation before. We can keep having it, if you need us to, but I can’t think of many more ways to tell you that we’re both right for each other.” She squeezed her girlfriend’s hand and reached up to place a gentle kiss on her cheek. “Anyway,” she said, tilting her head to one side so that she could see the sofa where Johnny and Moses were still, amazingly, sitting watching the TV, “not that I’m not flattered or anything, but what did they think they were going to make me with hundreds of crisps?” 

“I have no idea,” Charity replied, “but they did ask nicely, and you did say that we should teach them to have better manners, so I’m taking this as a win.”

“Well, that is something, I suppose,” Vanessa said, stepping away from Charity towards the fridge. “Oh, just one more thing though, and don’t take this the wrong way, but you didn’t let them eat all those crisps, did you?”

“No, obviously,” Charity said, widening her eyes in mock offence, “they couldn’t manage them all, so I helped.” She quickly threw her hands up in surrender before Vanessa could reply, "I’m joking! It was a joke! I do know how to use a hoover!"

Vanessa smiled over at her affectionately. “I love you,” she said simply, “now go and finish that film with them whilst I make dinner. I think the three of you have had enough time in the kitchen for one day.”

“Result! That was my plan all along,” Charity laughed and clasped her hands together before returning to her place on the sofa. “So,” she leaned down towards the two boys, “what did I miss? Are the cowboy and space man friends yet?”

**Author's Note:**

> I'm still finding my own writing style and trying to get a grasp of Charity and Vanessa so please take this with a pinch of salt. I'm in the middle of something a bit more detailed which I'll try and post in the next couple of days.


End file.
